James mcdonald



J. McDONALD.

PROCESS OF PREPARING PATENT LEATHER.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1 8. 191].

1,809,863. Patented July 15, 1919.

JAMES MCDONALD, F CINCINNATI, OHIO.

PROCESS OF PREPARING PATENT LEATHER.

Application filed April 18,

To all whom it may concern: p

Be it known that I, JAMES MCDONALD, a subject of the King of Great-Britain, and a resident of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in A the Process of Preparing Patent Leather, of

which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification. v

My invention relates to the treatment of patent leather with the materials necessary to form the glaze or gloss thereon and has, briefly stated, as its object the performing of the various steps of treatment automatically.

So far as I am aware it has been considered necessary in the past to treat leather for putting on the patent coat solely by hand, and to my personal knowledge the methods used in many large factories is the hand process. The leather in the usual practice is laid out on a frame and spread with the coatings of daub, as it is called, which is a chemical preparation of enamel-like nature. This is done by hand, and the workman then uses what is known as a-slicker, which is a bar of smooth steel or the like and rubs the daub into the leather, smooths it around and thins out the coat by the means of rubbing the bar over the'hide of leather. 3

So far as I am informed, it has beencon sidered necessary to use some such tool as the slicker to smooth down and'rub in the coatr ings of the daub, and in endeavoring to rovide for the actions of such a-tool it has een proven impli actical to treat the leather in steps suitable for application in an automatic process. 1 I

After the leather has been coated it is baked in an oven to harden the coat, and this invention does not relate to the baking of the leather but only to the treatment of it in the application and rubbing down of the coats of wet daub.

In the drawing,

Figure 1 is a side elevation in diagrammatic form of a plant for the treatment of leather with patenting fluid or enamel.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a diagram of the parts shown in Fig. 1.

As shown. there is a track 1 on which run the cars 2 The cars have flat tops which are Specificationof Letters Patent.

1917.- S eria1 No.162, 862. I

well smoothed and of a size just'smaller than the frames which hold the leather. frames 3 are the same as are used in the pres? ent hand practice, and comprise a hollow rectangular'frame across which the hide ,4 of.

trough 6 which will catch the excess fluid running off of the leather durin treatment, as this material is valuable an cannot be wasted. i I

After the'cars are started on the treatment, the first machine they come in contact with is the daub tank. As shown, the daub tank 7v is mounted on standards 8, 8, two on each side of the track and is held adjustably and under spring tension by screws and springs as shown diagrammatically at 9. There will.

be a series of depending spouts 10 for. the daub to flow onto the hide so set as to extend across the hide, and some automatic means for shuttin them on and oif by means of the cars. As s own, there is a handle 11, which will be struck over bythe bar 11 on the cars as they approach the tank, and the handle 12 which Will be struck over by the bar 12 on the car after the same has passed through the machine. The handle 11 will I turn on the daub and the handle 12 turn it ofi'; It is considered preferable by me that there be as many spouts as possible, say, thirty or more for the usual sized hide set in a row across the patlrof the car.

After the car passes through the daubtank machine, it will be running freely with the daub, which is next wiped down in my process. For this purpose, some sort of frame 13, supported on standards 14 so as to lie across the track, is to be used, with the scrapers 15 preferably made of felt and made up in an obtuse angle (Fig. 2). The

result of this angle will be that the excess daub which is pressed off of the leather will flow into the terminal tanks of the car. The felt will not mar the leather and will make The be set Patented July 15, 1919.

a smooth spreading of the daub over the entire surface of the hide.

The next step in my process is the rubbing in of the daub. This is done by means As shown, the brush 16 is made longer I than the full width of the leather, and is mounted on crank arms 17, four in number,

and two on each side of the track. The

brush has a spring tension controlled by screws as shown in diagram at 18, and the cranks are operated by means of the grain 19. When the cranks operate, the brush will be moved around in a circle, say of one foot, and the brush will be in contact with the leather and slightly pressed against it bythe sprin mounting means that is adopted. I have ound that this rotary brushing under sli ht pressure will result. in a perfect rubbing in of the daub. i

The car is moved slowly at all times and in passing beneath a brushing machine such as above briefly sketched out, will be thoroughly rubbed in or slicked down.

As a preferred final step the leather is rubbed off again by a set of felts 20 mounted across the track on standards 21; The felts,-

or whatever other material is used, should be quite resilient so as not to act as scrapers, and therefore I prefer to construct them out of numerous independent pieces of the material set alon side of each other.

The enamel ish may be applied to other fabrics than leather, and the finish is not necessarily smooth and glossy, as it may be pebbled or grained as in furniture leathers.

When a car has passed through this treatment, which it can be readily seen could be provided for in numerous ways, not necessary to mention, the hide will be ready for lifting off the cars and placing in the ovens. In a large plant, there will be a constant succession of cars moving slowly around the track, and there will be no more time consumed than in the treatment of the hides by hand.

Having thus described my invention,'what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. That process of treating leather which consists in treating a hide with desired fluid,

wiping off the hide, and then applying points of the hide.

2. That process of treating leather which consists in flowing a daub thereon, spreading and wiping off surplus daub, and then rubbing the hide with a bruslnin a circular movement parallel to the surface acted upon, said last two steps to take the place of the usual slicking of the hide by hand, whereby among other things, the brushing of the hide is so done as to apply equal brushing pressure at a like speed to all pointsof the hide.

3. That process of treating leather which consists in applying a sliding brush thereto under substantially light pressure with a rotary movement parallel to the surface treated, after having first treated the hide with the desired fluid, whereby among other things, the brushing of the hide is so done as to apply equal brushing pressure at a like speed to all points of the hide.

4. That process of treating leather which consists in applying to the previously daubed surface of the hide a brush having a flat surface and moved over the hide without rotating on itself with a circular movement parallel to the surface treated, whereby among other things, the brushing of the hide is so done as to apply equal brushing pressure at a like speed to all points of the hide.

5. That process of treating leather which consists in flowing a daub thereon, spreading and wiping ofl' surplus daub, rubbing the daubed surface with a moving brush applied with a circular movement parallel to the surface treated, and then wiping down the surface again, as and for the purpose described, whereby among other things-, 'the brushing of the hide is so done as to apply equal brushing. pressure at a like speed to all points of the hide.

JAMES McDONALD. 

